MINNEAPOLIS – The University of Northwestern St. Paul Women's Lacrosse team traveled to Augsburg University on Wednesday night to face the Auggies in the Midwest Women's Lacrosse Conference Tournament Semifinal. The Eagles triumphed 12-11 in overtime to advance to their first MWLC Championship game in the history of the program.
Samantha Wiebold (Farmington, Minn./Farmington) scored the game-winner for Northwestern with just 4.3 seconds remaining in overtime. Tied up at 11-11, the junior took control of the ball with under 15 seconds remaining, ran around the back of the net from right to left, forced her way through two Auggie defenders, and then jumped to her right while launching a shot past the approaching Auggie goalie to score the Semifinal winning goal.
Wiebold's clutch shot was her third goal of the night, joining Cara Smith (Watertown, Wis./Watertown) and Talia Sherry (Apple Valley, Minn./Eastview) as one of three Eagles to net a hat trick in the contest.
Augsburg jumped out to an early lead in the game, scoring twice in the first three minutes. Smith responded for UNW with a pair of back-to-back goals to even up the contest at 2-2. The Auggies countered with another pair of goals, but once more the Eagles answered as Wiebold and Sherry each scored their first goals of the day to tie up the score at 4-4. Augsburg would once again score to go up 5-4, but Sherry and Maddie Nimmo (Somerset, Wis./Hill-Murray) each found the back of the net in the final two minutes of the opening half to send UNW to halftime with a 6-5 lead.
In the second half, the Auggies scored a trio of goals in the first five minutes to retake the lead at 8-6. Undaunted, the Eagles upped the ante by scoring four in a row to take a 10-8 lead with 16:47 remaining in regulation. Augsburg scored to cut the UNW lead in half, but Abby Scheel (Stillwater, Minn./Stillwater Area) scored to regain the two goal lead for UNW with 14:34 remaining.
The Eagle defense held the two goal lead for over ten minutes, but the Auggies managed to score twice in the final four minutes of regulation to even the contest at 11-11 and send the Semifinal game to overtime. The overtime period was the first one played in the MWLC tournament in seven years, with the previous one occurring on May 2, 2014, in a semifinal match between Carthage and Concordia Wisconsin that extended to triple overtime. Northwestern ended the game in that first overtime period as Wiebold scored her unassisted game winner to send UNW to the conference title game.
Talia Gruthusen (Dryer, Ind./Lake Central) led the Eagle defense with six caused turnovers and six ground balls. Smith matched Gruthusen with six ground balls of her own to go along with five caused turnovers and a team-high seven draw controls. Jamie Ellis (Farmington, Minn./Homeschool) earned the win in net for the Eagles with 13 saves. Seven of Ellis's saves were in the final 15 minutes of regulation.
Northwestern will now travel to face Hamline University in the MWLC Tournament Championship game on Saturday, May 1, at 6:30pm.
